The Ivy League announced its major women’s awards Tuesday, but we know this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Ivy Hoops Online’s 2024-25 All-Ivy Awards, as determined by IHO’s contributors prior to the release of the Ivy League’s awards:
Thoughts on the Ivy League’s All-Ivy awards for women’s basketball
Editor’s note: Here are Steve Silverman’s reactions to Ivy League All-Ivy awards for players and coaches for the 2024-25 women’s basketball season announced Tuesday. Ivy Hoops Online’s 2024-25 Men’s and Women’s All-Ivy Awards are soon to come.:
Jim Engles out as head coach of Columbia men’s basketball
Hours after Steve Donahue was released from his role as the head coach of the Penn men’s basketball program, Columbia capped a busy Monday by announcing that Jim Engles has decided to step down from the head coaching role of the men’s program.
“Columbia has meant so much to me, and I’ve given everything I have to make this program the best it can be,” Engles said in a Columbia Athletics news release. “We may not have accomplished our ultimate goals, but I’m proud of the culture we built and the student-athletes we developed on and off the court. I also want to thank Peter Pilling for his support throughout the years and know the future of this program is bright.”
In his nine years in charge at Morningside Heights and eight years of competition, Engles finished with overall and Ivy records of 71-150 and 24-88, respectively.
Power ranking candidates for Penn men’s basketball to succeed Steve Donahue
Instead of dragging out the inevitable, Penn fired Steve Donahue on Monday after 10 years as head coach and two consecutive seventh-place finishes in the Ivy League. Donahue ends his time at Penn with a record of 131-130.
The Quakers have retained Georgia-based executive search firm Parker Executive Search to find Donahue’s replacement. It seems likely that the next Penn head coach will be one of the names below, conveniently grouped into a handful of tiers for debate and discussion:
The Steve Donahue era ends for Penn men’s basketball
After a disappointing 8-19 season and a second consecutive seventh-place Ivy League campaign, Penn men’s basketball coach Steve Donahue was fired by Alanna Wren on Monday morning.
With tenures at Cornell, Boston College and Penn, Donahue’s 23-year overall record is 331-344. Through his nine years at Penn, the coach finished at 131-130 overall and 63-63 mark in league play.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily Pennsylvanian, all three of Donahue’s assistants, Nat Graham, Joe Milalich Jr., and Kris Saulny, have also been released by the university.
“Steve has been steadfast in his commitment to the program and the development of our student-athletes. I’ve always had great respect for his commitment to Ivy values, and he has been a strong representative of Penn during his career,” Wren noted in Penn Athletics’ news release. “Unfortunately, the competitive success on the court has not been up to our standards. While difficult, a change in leadership is necessary to provide the championship-caliber experience our student-athletes, alumni and fans expect.”
2025 Ivy Madness fields are set
The field is set for Ivy Madness.
Penn finished with a higher NCAA NET ranking (No. 162) than Brown (No. 184), the Ivy League confirmed Sunday morning, making the Quakers the fourth and final team to clinch an Ivy League Tournament berth with the Bears on the outside looking into the tourney to be held on their home floor at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The full women’s and men’s slate for the Ivy League Tournaments are below, with automatic bids going to the tourney winners:
The Trifecta at the Palestra: Tiger Takeaways from Princeton women’s basketball’striumph over Penn
The Princeton women’s basketball team closed out the regular season on Saturday afternoon with a satisfying 67-53 win over Penn at the Palestra.
Here are three Tiger Takeaways from a triumph that gave Princeton 20 wins for a seventh consecutive season, tying a program record set during the Courtney Banghart era:
Princeton women’s basketball cruises past Penn, 67-53
Fadima Tall knocked down a career-high 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting along with 10 rebounds and four steals Saturday as Princeton women’s basketball warmed up for the Ivy League Tournament with a 67-53 win at Penn.
Penn’s loss, combined with Brown’s win, means that we won’t know which team will be the fourth entrant for Ivy Madness at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center till the NCAA releases its updated NET rankings to determine the tiebreaker. As the winner of the regular-season conference title, Columbia will play Penn or Brown in the tournament’s first round Friday, and Princeton will face Harvard; the championship game comes Saturday.Penn’s NET ranking was No. 162 as of Saturday night – 22 slots ahead of Brown at No. 184.
LISTEN: Princeton men’s basketball clinches Ivy League Tournament berth with 13th straight win over Penn
Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 95-71 victory for Princeton (19-10, 8-6 Ivy) over Penn (8-19, 4-10) at Jadwin Gym Saturday that clinched an Ivy League Tournament berth for the Tigers:
Harvard women’s basketball downs Dartmouth, 74-40
HANOVER, N.H. – The Harvard women’s basketball team knew its Ivy League Tournament place was secure heading into Saturday’s regular season finale Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth.
But as much as they probably didn’t want to look too closely at it, the Crimson also knew their hopes of an NCAA Tournament at-large berth was in a very precarious spot, listed as one of the Last Four In or dreaded Last Four Out on most bracketologies in the last two weeks.
So, even though Dartmouth was banged up and coming in on an 11-game losing streak, Harvard left nothing to chance on Dartmouth’s Senior Day, using their pressure to dominate from the opening tip, eventually posting a 74-40 victory at Leede Arena.
“We just really wanted to finish the regular season on a high note,” Harvard coach Carrie Moore said. “We didn’t feel great about how we played last weekend, so we wanted to get back to how we know we can play, and I felt we did that, especially the upperclassmen who set the tone early.”